Square poo and a son of a beach

For some reason I end up changing seats in the airplane. This time it was not ‘meant to be’ so I could play the hero, but it became a very interesting flight none the less.

An American family was traveling to Hawaii on vacation. Mom, dad, grandma, grandpa, son and daughter. I sat next to the mom, dad and 5 year old boy. The 7 year old daughter was seated in the front of the plane next to grandma. The girl was getting restless and started walking back and forth. I offered to change seats so she could sit with her brother. The parents gladly took the offer and I ended up next to grandma.

She was a tiny lady around 70 years old and she fit the stereotypical idea of an old lady. She had make up on with the lipstick covering more than just her lips, a shadow of dark hairs on her upper lip and very talkative.

Without me really listening she laid out her entire family history. This cousin moved here, that nephew got into trouble for this. Her husband got a new hip and so on and so forth. She was a member of the Rotary club and had seen a bit of the world. She asked where I was going and as soon as old here is was eventually bound for Australia she started talking about this animal she encountered down under which produced square poo. Small square pieces of feces, but she couldn’t remember what the animal was called. Later during the flight when we were walking about to stretch our legs she went to her daughter. “Sweety, what was that animal called with the square poo?”, she asked. Her daughter flushed red with embarrassment and we all started laughing. The square poo culprit turned out to a wombat. There is a nice piece of trivia knowledge for you. When we arrived in Hawaii the father came up to me with a big smile on his face. “Thanks again for switching seats with my daughter and sorry for all the weird stories”, he said as he put a $20 dollar bill in my hands. I told him it was not necessary, but he insisted. It was a very amusing flight and was glad I had some new weird encounter to write about.

Now for the more appealing part of this part of my journey. The shuttle bus dropped me of at the Waikiki Beachside Hostel where I would stay for the night. It was 1 pm, the sun was out, 34 degrees Celsius. Boulevards lined with palm trees, beautiful people in board shorts and bikinis hauling surfboards towards the turquoise water. Large waves breaking close to shore carrying all sorts of boards with all sorts of people on it. I was definitely in Hawaii!

At the hostel the rooms were getting cleaned and I could not drop my stuff of in my room. Instead I changed into my beach attire in the staff room and hit the beach. The water temperature was about 28 degrees Celsius and I was beside myself. It felt so good being in the ocean again. I noted that it was the first time for me in the Pacific Ocean. One more ocean to check of my list. I got into my island life mode instantly. Taking everything easy with a huge smile on my face. I find it hard to describe how I felt but it was a personal confirmation that sun, sea and palm trees mean instant happiness to me.

I walked down the beach to kill some time before heading back to the hostel and I came across this awesome tree. People who know me also know I can be intrigued by trees and this particular one definitely caught my eye. It was a tall tree with the canapé stretched out like a roof. And like mangrove trees the roots grew from the branches down to become trunks of their own. It is called a Banyen tree, but I like to refer to it as ‘The Mother tree’. Absolutely beautiful. So I sat in the shade of this amazing display of nature’s ingenuity watching the surfers as they waited in packs for the right wave to ride.

Some time had passed and I was able to check in and get in my room. It was an 8 bed dorm room which I shared with 5 others. A bloke galled Greg, from the UK who lived in Townsville, Australia for the past 4 years. So that’s another address to go to when get up there. An army girl galled grace, an ex-military now ordained minister called Kevin, a cute girl from Austria called Claudia and a 45 year old hippie type American-Japanese dude called Jack. It was quite a colorful crew we had going on. The atmosphere was really laid back and we hit it off like we knew each other for a long time.

I met up with Claudia and this guy named Anthony to go out for diner. I was intruding a bit since Anthony apparently was trying to get with Claudia for a few days already, but some European company was welcome to me and I tagged along anyways. We ended up in this Japanese place called Yakitori Glad. (I was surprised with the amount of Japanese people in Hawaii. There are small like ants and like ants they are everywhere). There were only Japanese people in the restaurant, which is a good indication that the food is good. We had fun there. The food was good and the menu even better. A story about the restaurant’s history was printed on it. It actually is quite a heavy story but written down in a hilarious manner. It was written down the same way a Japanese person would speak English. The owner had to go undergo surgery to battle cancer and he survived. ‘It was miracle!’ Follow this link and see for yourself. http://yakitori-glad.com/

My pick up the next morning for the airport shuttle was at 9 am, so I decided to turn in at around midnight. The next day I said goodbye to my new friends and exchanged personal information (you’ve got to love Facebook). There were no cups in the room so I and Jack had a bowl of coffee, which was quite funny on its own. An eleven hour flight was ahead of me that would bring me to my new home for the next ‘I don’t know how many’ years.

Now it is really time for my adventure to start. I hope you liked the prologue so far. Chapter one coming to you soon.